The power distribution and monitoring industries provide a tremendous variety of mechanical and electrical products. Home construction is generally regulated by federal, state, and local building codes, as well as consumers' needs for standardization, thereby motivating manufacturers to provide products meeting real and defacto standards. This availability of electrical products meeting standards, especially mechanical standards, provides convenience for consumers in that they may select from a variety of products for new and retrofit purposes.
Standardization is less rigorous for the installation of the electrical infrastructure in commercial and industrial locations. Certainly building codes specify certain requirements that provide for safety during and after installation, and many components used in a commercial installation are also used in a residence, such as a standard power outlet. But a variety of non-standardized products and materials are available to the architect and installer of a building's electrical system. An example of a product often used for routing electrical wires from a junction box to a point of use location is a wiring raceway. A three-sided raceway is typically mounted against a wall, a four-sided raceway is often used in a free-standing laboratory or assembly area where all sides may be exposed. An important characteristic of such installations is that each is customized, often determined by an electrician on the spot at the time of installation.
The most common components made available to users as-installed in a raceway are electrical outlets. Depending upon code restrictions and safety considerations, CAT5 wire for a local area network, coax cable for carrying video signals, even high pressure air may also be encased in a raceway, with the appropriate termination placed where it will be convenient for users. However needs may change over time, and therefore the complement of components encased in a raceway may need to be changed in response.
Power monitoring is sometimes provided for an entire building or subset of the building, for example a circuit or collection of circuits dedicated to a certain section of a building. However there are circumstances in which it is desirable to monitor the power or power use corresponding to a smaller region, for example an area served by a single raceway. It would be desirable to install a power. It would also be desirable to retrofit a power meter into a raceway in response to a change in need or simply a decision. However power meters for encasement in a raceway to meter single outlets or single circuits are not available today.